Ferdinand Marcos Jr is absolving himself of the anomalies and corruption being exposed in connection with flood control projects. He pretends to be innocent and even feigns interest in holding accountable those who stole public funds.

Like the previous Duterte regime’s use of a “matrix” that named politicians as supposed drug lords, Marcos uses a list of select and limited contractors involved in corrupt projects as a weapon against his competitors for public funds. He established a supposed independent commission to conduct an “investigation” but has kept it from public scrutiny.

The depth and breadth of systemic and systematic corruption at every level and corner of the state bureaucracy have been revealed. Hearings in Congress and the Senate exposed the collusion between Malacañang, congressmen, senators, contractors, and officials from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and even the Commission on Audit and banks, to siphon off and pocket billions in public funds. Revelations showed bloated project costs, the use of substandard materials, incomplete projects, and reports of non-existent or ghost projects.

The public was shocked by reports of hundreds of millions in cash allegedly stuffed into suitcases and delivered to the houses of Zaldy Co, a congressman who held the powerful appropriations committee and aide to then House Speaker Martin Romualdez. It highlighted the extravagant lifestyles of the Discaya family and the children of contractors who secured hundreds of infrastructure projects. Corrupt engineers from the DPWH and Bulacan districts revealed how senators Chiz Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, and Joel Villanueva shamelessly demanded their cut in person.

However Marcos tries to, he cannot deny the fact that he is at the center of stinking anomalies in his government. It is his office that leads and oversees the formulation and finalization of the national budget, which has become a milking cow for bureaucrats. Even in the budget’s preparation, he secures his share in the form of confidential and intelligence funds, allocations for the Maharlika Fund, and funds for unprogrammed appropriations (UA) that serve as his personal pork barrel. Marcos’s UA funds are massive— from the historic ₱807 billion in 2023, ₱731 billion in 2024, and a projected ₱363 billion in 2025.

Between 2022 and 2025, Marcos allocated ₱545 billion for 9,855 flood control projects. Over 6,000 of them were revealed as defective, redundant, or incomplete. His office and department secretaries included these projects even during the drafting stage of the National Expenditure Program. Before finalizing the national budget, congressmen and senators inserted additional and larger corrupt allocations through a small group in Congress and the bicameral conference committee of Congress and the Senate. Marcos signed the budget into law.

In October, ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio revealed in Congress that Marcos himself approved and funded no less than 3,700 additional projects worth ₱214.4 billion from his UA funds for 2023–2025.

Official state data show that in 2023 Marcos allocated ₱61.4 billion in UA funds to the DPWH for 1,889 projects, and ₱153 billion in 2024 for 1,811 projects. The largest portion—₱141 billion—was for flood control projects, while the remainder went to repairing roads and multi-purpose buildings. Most projects funded by Marcos’s UA are located in Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and Cebu—regions under investigation for defective and ghost projects.

A Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism special report also revealed earlier that Marcos received ₱21 million from two contractors as contributions to his 2022 candidacy, in violation of reactionary election rules.